Cirque du Soleil seems intent on touring its old shows until they drop. Lucky, then, that Quidam is one of the better, if not the best, created by Cirque’s original dream team. But that was back in 1996 and although wearing well, it has lost much of its sparkle.
Nothing, however, can diminish the brilliance of some of its acts - the gorgeous diabolo quartet, who work at speed and accomplish every flick with precision, the mesmerising hand-balancer/contortionist Olga Pikhienko, and the extraordinary slow motion hand to hand duo Jerome Le Baut and Anna Vicente, whose strength is other-worldly.
For sheer beauty and elegance, the aerial hoop trio of Kristina Besschetnaya, Meghan Miller and Oksana Pylypchuk runs these close. But it is the award-winning acrobatic banquine troupe, still headed by superman Konstantin Besschetny - and including the show’s sole Brit, Julie Cameron - which provides the only real frisson of excitement and danger. Their hand-boosted, often synchronised, somersaults, with bodies flying in all directions, send shivers down the spine, and end as Dmitro Sidorenko lands a back flip on to a three-man column.
They also perform the wonderful skipping number, led by soloists Kata Banhegyi and Norihisa Taguchi, which is now even more innovative and intricate.
And without the dreary Macloma clowns, the humour, from the charming Toto Castineiras and Mark Ward, has become more light-hearted, and actually funny.
A decade ago, any Cirque show would leave the audience euphoric, but the company’s formulaic style no longer packs such a punch. Quidam received justifiably rousing applause, but its glory days of lengthy standing ovations may be gone.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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